


Intruder

by mskatej



Category: Smallville
Genre: Cheating, F/M, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-12
Updated: 2006-12-12
Packaged: 2017-10-26 12:51:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/283348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mskatej/pseuds/mskatej
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clark is in heat. Chaos ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intruder

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t even know where to start when it comes to thanking my amazing beta, bop_radar. She read the first draft of this story and sent me five pages of notes on how it needed to be rewritten. She worked so hard on this and is an absolute legend and is completely responsible for this story making sense.

_Prologue_

Oh no. This can’t be happening. Clark grips the edge of the sink as gently as he can and stares into the bathroom mirror, blinking the sweat out of his eyes and breathing hard. Why does this always have to take him by surprise? Why does it always happen when the weather is hot and when he has more important things to do? Why can’t he be normal, dammit? What if Chloe needs him in Metropolis? What if Lois gets herself in some kind of jam that only Clark can get her out of? There is no way he can see either of them right now.

Based on past experience, he’s facing at least seven more days of this and it always gets worse as it goes on. Currently he’s hot, dripping with sweat, and hard, but he should feel a little better after a shower.

It’s not often Clark gets like this. Normally sex is the last thing on his mind, but twice a year or so for the past four years, he goes through a week of torturous sexual cravings and it’s difficult for him to think of anything else. He found it upsetting and embarrassing the first few times, hiding away from people as much as possible, and hating himself for not being able to control the perverse and often disturbing fantasies he’d have, but then he decided it might be a smart idea to stop feeling sorry for himself and just try to get on with things.

This means staying away from the people he’s most attracted to for the week and taking a lot of cold showers. He tries to resist the temptation to masturbate, but he usually only lasts a few days before he gives in. It’s become a challenge – every time he goes through this he attempts to last a little bit longer without touching himself than he did the time before.

He stays under the shower for twenty minutes then gets dressed slowly. By the time he makes it downstairs his entire body is buzzing with sexual energy again. He’ll spend the entire day today doing chores and he’ll get a lot done. He’ll have about five showers.

The fantasies will kick in at about four this afternoon.

“Clark, would you run to the Talon for me and pick up some coffee beans?” his mother asks him later that morning as he throws hay about the barn.

Clark gulps. “What?”

“Can you please run to the Talon for me and pick up some coffee beans,” she repeats.

There’ll be people at the Talon. Attractive people, knowing Clark’s luck. “Now?”

“Sometime today thanks Clark.”

Why can’t she go to the Talon? Why does he have to do everything? “Okay.”

She smiles at him and Clark follows her into the house, heads upstairs and jumps in the shower again.

~~~

  


~~~

Lana trails her fingers over the shiny deep green hood of her new Miata and smiles at the way the sun bounces off it and onto her face, pleasantly warming her cheeks and forehead. She slips inside the slinky vehicle and shuts the door behind her, breathing in the comforting smell of the slightly perfumed upholstery with a contented smile.

She hadn’t had her own car in well over a year, but when constantly borrowing Lex’s cars began to get on her nerves a few months ago she decided it was time to splash out. The bank was only too willing to loan Lana the money she needed, and she knows it’s because they knew she didn’t really need it. But it was important to her to buy this car herself and she loves it almost as much as she loves her boyfriend.

She turns on the ignition and smiles again, because she likes the way this car sounds: dirtier, cheaper, friendlier than the Porsche or the Mercedes or the Ferrari. It reminds her of being poor in the country; a time she thinks of fondly now, even though she doesn’t miss it.

The building she lives in has a large underground parking garage, but she never uses it, because her neighborhood is so pretty and clean and she likes the way her car – by far the cheapest one parked on the block – looks outside, sparkling in the afternoon sunlight. She loves the big sidewalks lined with trees, and the brownstone apartments, and knowing that she has this place to come home to after her weekend with Lex is over.

No one who knows Lana understands why she’s with a man like Lex Luthor. All they see is a cold, ruthless, weird-looking businessman with too much money. He’s not considered a good person by the general public, or even by the people who personally know him, and while Lana knows better than anyone that “good” isn’t a description that necessarily fits, she also knows that “great” is.

He’s extraordinary in so many ways, and that’s more important to Lana than his dark side, although she understands that too. Because she shares it. She sees part of herself in Lex, she knows what living with darkness is like, and that’s why she’s the only person who can help him.

Driving a little too fast is a habit she picked up from Lex, and the feeling of the warm wind blowing through her hair as she races through the outskirts of Metropolis and into the dusky orange countryside, Smallville bound, makes her laugh out loud.

She turns up the radio and sings along loudly to Jennifer Rush’s version of The Power Of Love.

Power, as it turns out, _is_ an aphrodisiac and Lana’s no more immune to it than anyone else; she’s a woman first, a humanist second. But that doesn’t matter because she keeps Lex good; he’s not the only one with power. Lex is honest with her about everything, even the shadier stuff that he really shouldn’t be sharing with her, but which he understands she needs to know about if she’s to stay with him. It’s her bargaining chip: if he doesn’t keep her fully informed, she’s gone.

He doesn’t realize that she can’t imagine ever leaving now, even if he were to start keeping secrets. She’s hooked on Lex in a way that took her completely by surprise.

They’ve been happy together since the beginning of their relationship, eight months ago; happy in a way Lana hadn’t thought possible. He’s both difficult and easy to be with. Difficult because she needs to constantly work at keeping Lex both happy and virtuous; easy because she succeeds.

There were rocky patches at the start, but things improved when Lana moved back to Metropolis part time. She’s still at the mansion four nights out of seven, but on Mondays she heads to the city and lives her other life. She resides in an apartment owned by Lex. It’s beautiful and far too large, and she still hasn’t had the nerve to invite her friends from college over. Lana dreads the questions they might ask. Chloe hangs out there sometimes, but she’s the only guest Lana ever entertains, because she doesn’t have to explain anything to Chloe.

She hadn’t meant for things to turn out like that. Lana recalls the arguments she had with Lex over where she would and wouldn’t be prepared to live, and even though it itches a little that Lex eventually won those arguments, she finds it hard to be too concerned about it when she’s relaxing in her porcelain hot tub on a Tuesday night with a glass of champagne in her hand.

Okay, so being with Lex has changed her. But for better or worse she loves him with all her heart.

On Thursdays, late in the afternoon, she drives back to Smallville to see Lex, just as she’s doing now. She looks forward to it all week: the time when she’ll get to see his smile, hear him talk, make him laugh. She’ll get to smell him and touch him and kiss him and fuck him.

Their relationship is as healthy as any other she knows of. It’s not perfect, because no relationship is, but as far as she’s concerned the only thing that really matters is that they love each other.

She can only think of one thing that would make it better: not having to constantly risk running into Clark whenever she’s in Smallville.

It’s quiet and warm there tonight, and she cruises slowly through the peaceful streets, smiling and waving at any locals she recognizes and getting hesitant smiles or cautious waves in return. That’s alright though. She’s become accustomed to the drawbacks that come with being Lex Luthor’s significant other.

They don’t compare to the perks.

~~~

Lana moves on top of him enthusiastically, grunting with pleasure, shiny with sweat, prettier than all the other girls he’s known. Lex loves her in this moment, like he’s never loved anyone else. No one is as connected to him as Lana is, and she knows it, and she needs it, and that makes Lex feel victorious.

He won her unfair and unsquare, but when she cries out and slams her body down onto him, coming all around him, he doesn’t feel concerned about that in the least.

It only bothers him when he acknowledges the one thing that stops his relationship with Lana from being perfect: she loves Clark more than she loves Lex.

Loved, loves, will always love.

Sometimes Lex feels like yelling at her. Get over it. Get the fuck over it. It wasn’t as if things with Clark were _ever_ good. It wasn’t as if they’d had sex more than twice. It wasn’t as if Clark had told her the truth about himself, or that he hadn’t lied to her face for years, or that he’d not repeatedly let her down. There was no relationship. There’s _nothing_ to mourn.

Yet she does. And it sometimes shows. And it makes Lex want to hurt her.

But those moments are rare and it helps that the only emotion he can conjure up with regards to Clark these days is disdain. Even though he still acknowledges to himself that the rewards for being Clark’s friend were far greater than the punishments. He got Lana, after all, which wouldn’t have been possible without Clark. He got… many, many things.

He’s a lucky man. Lana’s slick skin and drooping eyelids are easy to concentrate on and effective at sending Lex over the edge into orgasm.

They only slump together for a few seconds before Lex peels off the condom, knots it at the top, and walks it over to the wastebasket in the corner of the room. He drops it in and stares at it. Someone else will empty that bin tomorrow, and they’ll see a semen-filled condom that belongs to their intimidating employer, and they’ll be forced to imagine him having sex.

Cuddling afterwards is a comforting habit that lasts only until Lana is ready for sleep. Then she rolls away from him, curls up and dozes off.

Lex sometimes watches her, his heart full of wonder at her beauty, his possessiveness sometimes overwhelming. They’ve been together a long time now and it’s the best relationship Lex has ever had. He’ll propose to her soon and he’s certain she’ll say yes.

The ring he bought five months ago is locked up in the top draw of his desk, waiting for him, waiting for the right time. Soon…

They wake up in the morning and go about their symbiotic rituals of showers and coffee and reading the paper. Lana has toast for breakfast. Lex has nothing. They barely speak because they’ve known each other long enough not to need to anymore.

Lana jumps in her cute little car and heads off to Metropolis every Monday, and Lex won’t see her again until Thursday night. In the fours days preceding their next meeting, he’ll miss her terribly at night but during the day he’ll keep himself busy.

His time away from Lana is precious because it means he can concentrate on work she knows nothing about.

Lex has been studying and utilizing the meteor rocks – kryptonite – for years. Until about seven months ago he hadn’t spent much time working in the labs; he always had staff to do the work for him. But now he can’t seem to stay away. He’s there every day, in his private lead-lined lab in the basement of his mansion.

Every day except Friday, Saturday and Sunday, when Lana’s around.

~~~

A balmy Sunday afternoon leads Lex and Lana to the Talon for some coffee and blueberry muffins. The café is lively and Lex is in high spirits. He orders their coffees and sits down next to Lana with his back to the wall so he can people-watch.

“Oh great,” she mutters when Clark walks in; flannel-clad and tall as ever, a slightly vacant expression on his face. This expression changes to one of discomfort the moment he sets eyes on them.

“Be nice,” Lex murmurs, smiling slightly up at Clark as he slowly passes their table.

“Hi,” Clark says quickly, his eyes flitting from Lana to Lex, Lana to Lex, but he doesn’t stop.

“Hi,” Lana says in a monotone. Lex knows her entire reaction to Clark’s presence is for his benefit, because there’s no way she’s indifferent to Clark. It irritates Lex that she pretends to be, and that she thinks he can’t tell she’s full of shit.

She still wants Clark and Clark still wants Lana, and why is Lex’s jealousy getting worse the longer he’s with her? It wasn’t like this in the beginning.

It was easier then. He felt more secure.

Clark wasn’t a factor the way he is now. Yes, Clark was a factor. Of course he was a factor. But Lex had genuinely wanted Lana, – he’d always wanted her - he’d felt worthy of Lana, and he knew he would be a better partner for Lana, and taking her from Clark had been the perfect icing.

The icing had seeped into the cake though, over the months, and sometimes it’s all Lex can taste.

Clark’s there, always there, in the back of Lana’s mind, in the fucking coffee shop, on the streets of Smallville, still helping people compulsively, and being ridiculously indiscreet about his powers, although no one ever seems to notice.

Their truce is an uneasy one, to put it mildly.

Thankfully Clark keeps his distance as much as possible, since he's is terrified that Lex will spill the beans to someone scarier than Lex (or to Lana). He seems to think that one wrong step will cause Lex to turn around and cheerfully impart the entire truth of Clark’s existence to the Inquisitor.

Which works very nicely for Lex, because it means Clark is much less vigilant than he used to be when it comes to snooping around Lex’s business affairs. Little does Clark know that Lex has no intention of revealing Clark’s secrets to anyone, ever. Lex will never allow anyone other than himself to have power over Clark, and there’s not a thing Clark could say or do that will change that.

Clark’s standing up at the counter, waiting awkwardly for his coffee, and Lex watches him and listens to Lana bitching, wondering if Clark’s listening too.

“I hope he leaves once he’s got his drink. I’m not in the mood to talk to him today.”

“Why not?”

“Because he always acts so… when we’re together.”

Lex feels unreasonably annoyed about the incompleteness of that sentence. “I don’t think seeing us together will ever be easy for him.”

“But why does he have to make it difficult for _us_? Like he wants us to feel bad about being in a healthy, happy relationship.”

Lana didn’t used to express her discontent about Clark’s discontent; it’s been a relatively recent development and it does nothing for Lex’s paranoia.

“Just don’t let it get to you,” he says. “I don’t.”

Clark slips past them and Lex catches a quiet “bye” and then he’s opening the door and gone.

Lana sighs with relief. “Oh, thank God.”

Lex feels like slapping her.

~~~

On Tuesday Lex exits his lab at two in the morning. He doesn’t usually stay down there so late and he’s barely seen daylight since Lana left the mansion yesterday morning, but at least the work has stopped him thinking about Lana’s fixation with Clark.

He jumps in the shower and scrubs himself raw.

Tomorrow he’ll go and talk to Clark and try to gauge how Clark is feeling about Lana. Lex needs to find out once and for all if this could turn into a problem.

~~~

Clark walks into the barn, blinking and sweating. He walks up the stairs , retrieves the box he has hidden under the couch and sets it down on the table.

It’s nine o’clock on Wednesday evening; he’s broken his record. Four extremely difficult days without masturbating, but now it’s time to start enjoying himself. He plans to spend the entire night up here with his box of toys. His mom’s in Metropolis with Lionel for the evening, so he’s got the entire farm to himself. He plans to orgasm several times – they’re always amazingly intense when he’s like this and God, he can’t _wait_.

He’s close to the edge already and he wants to keep it simple and sensual for now. He rifles around in the box, pushing aside a couple of magazines, some loose photos, an empty wine bottle. He pulls out a bottle of baby oil and a small box of tissues, then sets them on the table and pushes the box back under the couch.

He removes his clothes methodically, leaving them on the floor, and lies on the couch, naked.

He pours oil all over his chest and starts smoothing it into his skin, over his stomach and hips and inner thighs, sighing in relief. He holds off touching his cock for as long as he can stand it, but when he finally gives in and starts stroking the stiff length, he throws his head back and lets a fantasy take hold of his imagination.

Images of Lana and Lex in the Talon on Sunday flit through his mind, and he tries to fling them out but they’re persistent, and they quickly become X-rated.

Lana bent over the table in the crowded café with her skirt hiked up over her ass, wearing no underwear.

Lex is behind Lana, pants around his ankles, thrusting inside. Why Lex appears in Clark’s fantasies when he’s like this is a mystery to Clark, especially now that Clark barely even likes the guy. A few years ago it was more understandable because they were closer, but now it’s just weird. Still, he’s learnt to let his hormones be the boss, and if they want him to think about Lex having sex, that’s what he’ll do.

Everyone’s watching Lex fucking Lana, but it just turns them on more and makes Lex push in harder, moan louder. Clark walks up behind Lex and fondles his moving ass, before ripping open his own fly and pulling himself out.

“Jesus.”

Clark’s eyes fly open and he jerks his head around towards the voice, blinking at the stunned face of Lex, who’s standing at the top of the stairs, gaping at Clark.

“Lex,” he gasps, halting his wrist but keeping a firm grip on himself. He’s clutching the top of the couch with his free hand, panting, and far too close to coming to be able to feel anything other than sexual excitement. “Sorry. Oh God.” He shuts his eyes and strokes himself a couple more times. “I can’t—”

He looks back over and Lex seems to be frozen to the spot, his eyes flickering all over Clark’s body like he can’t control them.

“Oh God, help me,” Clark says and as Lex moves closer, Clark’s nostrils are suddenly filled with the potent scent of Lex’s arousal.

Lex is standing next to Clark now, gazing down at him; the tension written on his face looks pornographic.

“What’s going on?” Lex asks quietly, eyes fixed on Clark’s cock.

“I don’t- I can’t-” Clark arches his back and pushes his groin towards Lex. “I sometimes get like this. Oh God. Please touch me.”

Lex breathes noisily through his nose and doesn’t move for a long time. He just studies Clark’s body carefully and licks his lips.

Then he kneels down beside the couch and Clark takes his hand off himself, shaking with need.

Lex reaches out and slides his hands down Clark’s oily chest and belly and it makes Clark almost weep with pleasure.

“Thank you,” he sings blissfully, closing his eyes.

But Lex is a tease. He pours more oil onto Clark and rubs it into him, everywhere except his cock. Shoulders, biceps, forearms. Chest and ribcage. Up and down his calves and thighs, hips and waist. His inner thighs when Clark spreads his legs and pushes his hips up again in an attempt to encourage Lex to move his hand where Clark really wants it.

He stares down at his straining erection, the pink, exposed head, swollen and shiny, desperate for touch.

“How often do you get like this, Clark?”

“Not often. Please Lex.”

Lex breathes out a smile but still keeps his hands at a respectable distance from Clark’s dick. That is, until Clark grabs one of them and forces it onto himself, holding it, holding it there, and crying out in ecstasy when Lex starts to stroke.

“Shh,” Lex hushes. “Just relax and enjoy it, Clark.”

Clark feels himself nodding at that insightful piece of advice, and they find a deliciously slow rhythm together, Lex twisting his wrist with each upward caress and occasionally swiping his thumb over the distended head of Clark’s penis.

He can’t hear anything except the pounding of his own heart and Lex’s increasingly noisy breathing. He can’t smell anything except baby oil and lust, and he can’t see anything except Lex’s rapt face, his eyes currently glued on the cock in his pumping fist.

The first wave of Clark’s orgasm is severe, the come splashing out onto his belly extensive. And it keeps on going.

Wave after wave, increasing in intensity each time, jet after jet, going all over him and saturating Lex’s hand and fingers.

It feels like he might never stop shuddering, like he’ll never come down.

High as a kite and mind too foggy to comprehend what he’s doing even though he knows it’s wrong, Clark reaches out towards Lex, desperately wanting to touch him. But Lex stands up and backs away from him quickly, staring down at Clark, eyes wide with shock.

“I have to go,” he says slowly.

Clark focuses his gaze on the tented crotch of Lex’s pants. “Do you want me to—”

“No. Thanks. I have to go.” Lex turns around and walks out, leaving Clark on the couch, covered in semen, very confused, wondering what the hell he can possibly do to fix this.

Lex just… made him come. And it was the best orgasm he’s ever had.

~~~

Lex spends the drive back to the mansion forcing himself to think unsexy thoughts, which takes every ounce of willpower he has inside him, and his erection still isn’t entirely gone by the time he reaches the mansion.

That was… an interesting experience. In recent years his fantasies about Clark have tended to be more about strapping him to a table and performing experiments on him than anything sexual, but beggars can’t be choosers. And seeing Clark orgasm was an experience beyond his wildest dreams. Alien orgasms are several times more intense than human orgasms, Lex notes, with an intoxicating combination of envy and excitement coursing through his veins. It was worth it just to see that. Otherwise, it didn’t mean anything.

He taps the code into the keypad next to the door of his lab. The numbers he chose for this particular password are significant, especially now: they’re the date he and Clark first met.

He wanders around inside the lab, looking at the things he’s created, fingering them lovingly, admiring his work, yet strangely unmotivated to do any work for the first time in several months.

Still, here is the place he can hide: from the outside world and from any feelings of remorse. Lex finds the murky blue lighting in here comforting, and as he fiddles with his latest contraption he contemplates the way his life has changed since he discovered Clark’s “secret”.

Waking up in the hospital and suddenly knowing everything he’d always wanted to know had been a surprisingly disturbing experience, and the only way he knew how to deal with it was to lie to everyone. To pretend he remembered nothing of his experience as Zod’s vessel. It was all still so clear in his mind and yet no one in the world had realized he could remember it. Not even Clark.

Clark.

Lex finally admitted the truth to Clark six months ago, after a petty argument about one of Lexcorp’s more dangerous projects. Clark lost his temper.

“You told Lana, didn’t you! And you’re going to tell the press unless I do what you want!” he’d shouted.

“I haven’t told Lana, Clark.” His smile had been so very smug. “Yet.”

“What do you want, Lex?”

“I want you to stay out of my affairs!” Lex had laughed. Surely that was obvious! “As long as you do that, your secret is safe with me.”

“Stop breaking the law and I’ll be happy to stay out of your affairs.”

“Seeya, Clark.” Lex walked away from him then, brushing past him with a grin on his face and a triumphant swagger in his step.

Clark has backed off considerably since then, oblivious to the fact that Lex’s obsession with him had returned in full force after Zod. From a purely scientific perspective, of course, Clark is as important to Lex as he ever was.

And what happened today did nothing to change that fact. He shouldn’t have done it, it’s true, but it’s not as though it will ever happen again. And it’s not as though Lana will ever find out.

The idea of Lana finding out hits him hard and he shakes his head vigorously to purge it from his mind.

It’s time to go to bed.

~~~

Clark walks into Lex’s mansion at midday the next day in something of a daze. He hasn’t really planned anything but he knows he needs to tell Lex he’s sorry and that what happened doesn’t mean anything. Clark isn’t interested in ruining Lex’s relationship with Lana and he’s well aware that the way he’s feeling has nothing to do with anything genuine. It’s his stupid alien hormones at work and he can fight this. He has to.

Lex is in his office, sitting at his desk. He looks up when Clark enters the room, snaps his laptop shut, and stares into Clark’s eyes as he approaches him.

Then he stands up and walks around the desk and the two of them face each other, standing slightly too close together and Lex is looking away now, his jaw clenched and a very serious expression on his face.

“What are you doing here?” Lex asks softly.

“I wanted to apologize. For yesterday,” Clark replies, voice equally soft.

Lex drags his front teeth over his bottom lip. “There’s no need.”

“I know. But I wanted you to hear it from me.” Clark reaches out and runs his hand down Lex’s arm. “I’m sorry. It was my fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, and I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

Lex nods. “Thanks.” Then he looks up at Clark. “Are you still…?”

Clark swallows and smiles. “Yeah,” he sheepishly admits. “It usually lasts about a week.”

“Ah.” Lex isn’t moving an inch, so Clark is forced to shuffle a little closer. But he’s stopped from getting as close as he wants to by a flattened palm in the middle of his chest. “Clark. I can’t.”

“I know!” Clark exclaims, offended by Lex’s presumption. “I just wanted to say sorry!”

But Lex’s hand is still pressed into his chest and he’s not taking it away.

“It’s a really bad idea,” Clark murmurs. He can hear Lex breathing; he can _smell_ Lex, and it’s driving him crazy. So he reaches out with one hand and grabs Lex by the waist, squeezing it gently and gasping a little.

“Clark, you need to go. Now.” Lex’s tone has some urgency in it, as if he’s trying to tell Clark that if he doesn’t leave right now, something will happen between them. This does not convince Clark of the merits of leaving.

“Okay,” he says, moving forward a little more, tilting his head towards Lex’s, silently begging for a kiss.

“Fuck.” Lex grabs the side of Clark’s neck and digs his fingers in, looks down and pushes the top of his head into Clark’s chest. Clark wraps his arms around Lex and slides a hand down over Lex’s ass, pulling him in closer so Lex is forced to look up. He lands a hard kiss on Lex’s open mouth.

It gets hot and uncompromising instantly, both sucking and groping and grinding against each other, until Lex pushes Clark off him and holds him away at arm’s length, his hand back on Clark’s chest.

“Wait,” he pants. “Wait.” Lex manoeuvres Clark around until he’s leaning on the edge of the desk, and looks Clark dead in the eye. Clark undoes the top button on his jeans and pulls down his fly, which makes Lex furrow his brow in aroused frustration and laugh helplessly.

Then Lex falls to his knees.

Clark pushes his jeans and boxers down and holds his cock in his hand, powerless to do anything other than point it towards Lex and watch in awe, as Lex pulls Clark’s hand away, replaces it with his own, then sucks the head of Clark’s cock into his mouth, gripping Clark’s thigh with his other hand. Pink lips stretching around him, smooth cheeks hollowing, wet tongue tasting and swirling; it’s the sexiest experience of Clark’s life.

Lex’s head sinks slowly down, working his mouth around Clark’s dick, taking as much of it inside himself as he can manage, and the back of Lex’s throat is soft and moist and the _sight_ of Lex is…

Clark’s hips are starting to move of their own accord, thrusting forward to meet Lex stroke for stroke. His groans are constant now, his orgasm imminent.

If possible, it’s more intense today than it was yesterday, and seeing Lex gulp him down, throat moving as he swallows and swallows, so much come, so much of Clark’s pleasure…

When it’s over, Lex wipes his mouth on the back of his hand and stands up. Clark moves to grab him again, but Lex backs away and stands just beyond Clark’s reach. “You have to go now,” he says, a note of disbelief in his voice.

“I want to touch you.”

“Get out!” Lex shouts, and even though Clark is agonizingly aware of Lex’s unattended-to erection, he doesn’t really know how to argue with him. So he zips himself up and hovers in front of Lex for a few seconds, vaguely hoping for a change of heart, but guessing he’s not going to get one.

“Can I come over tomorrow?” he asks.

Lex stares at him like he’s crazy. “What?” He shakes his head incredulously. “Lana’s going to be here in a few hours. And she’ll be here until Monday morning. So no. You cannot ‘come over’ tomorrow.”

“But—”

“No buts, Clark. Get the hell out of here.” Lex turns away from Clark and places his hands on the edge of the desk, arms outstretched, bent over, breathing heavily.

It makes Clark feel uncomfortable enough to leave. Lex obviously isn’t dealing with this very well and Clark clearly isn’t being helpful, so he shrugs awkwardly and offers Lex the only information he currently has stored in his head. “I’ll be in the barn all afternoon if you change your mind.”

Then he leaves, feeling stupid and unfulfilled.

~~~

Lana is sitting on the couch next to Lex, absorbed in an unbelievably boring reality TV program about an arrogant, overweight nanny who treats children like animals and their parents like the brainless fools they are. He’s got his arm around Lana’s shoulder and her head is nestled in his armpit. He’s lightly stroking her shoulder with his fingers.

She’ll expect to have sex with him in a few hours, which is normally the thing Lex looks forward to most on a Thursday. But tonight he’s dreading it. How can he kiss her? How can he put his tongue in her mouth after where it’s been?

Fuck.

And then there’s Clark. Who openly wants to screw Lex through the floor, and who Lex can’t seem to resist. Not terribly surprising, but deeply inconvenient. Clark said this thing he’s going through doesn’t last long, so by the time Lex sees him again, things will be back to normal, and all they’ll be left with is the memory of their indiscretions, and a whole lot of guilt.

He can last until Monday before seeing Clark again, and then they’ll talk and Clark will apologize and actually mean it this time, and they’ll agree to pretend it never happened.

Yet it’s extremely difficult to purge the image of Clark’s naked body from his mind. He stops paying attention to the TV entirely and lets his eyes fall shut, and he gets hard within seconds as he remembers the expression on Clark’s face while his cock was in Lex’s mouth.

He reaches over, grabs Lana’s hand, and pushes it down onto his erection. Having sex suddenly feels like a very good idea.

She responds straight away, rubbing him through his pants and curling herself around so they can kiss. But Lex avoids her mouth and plants his own on her neck, digging his teeth in gently and sucking.

“We need a condom,” Lex whispers into her throat, as Lana straddles him and starts to grind. Thank fuck she’s wearing a skirt.

“You’re in luck,” she replies. “I have one in my purse.” She leans back in his lap and stretches one arm out behind her, grabbing her bag off the coffee table and holding it between them. Lex stares at her hands as they rifle around inside, and thrusts his hips up in excitement at the sight of the shiny red wrapper.

He unzips himself and pulls out his cock then takes the condom from Lana and rips open the wrapper with his teeth. “Take off your panties,” he commands breathlessly as he rolls the rubber down over his hot rigid flesh. Lana moves off him and hastily peels off her underwear, then she’s back astride his lap and sighing happily as she slides down onto his cock, not stopping until he’s completely encased.

They fuck for a while in that position, until Lana comes, and then Lex lifts her off him and arranges her so she’s on her hands and knees, her skirt hiked up around her waist, her ass in the air, and he plunges in again.

He keeps his eyes closed and his mouth open, and he grunts with each hard thrust in, trying to concentrate only on the sensations, forget about everything else.

Clark coming in his mouth…

Lex shudders and climaxes to that memory, then pulls himself out and swiftly backs away from Lana, until the arm of the couch is digging into his back. He’s panting loudly, suddenly afraid of touching her.

But Lana crawls over and wraps herself around him, sated and sleepy. “Let’s go to bed,” she says.

“You go up. I’ll be there in a little while. There’s some work I need to finish.”

“Oh,” she says, frowning. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” he replies quickly. “I’ll be up soon.” Get out. He can’t seem to behave normally which is alarming him, because how can she not notice? She’s going to guess, she’s going to know what he did.

But Lana collects her things together; purse and underwear, and heads out of the room without further protest. Lex lets out the breath he was holding once the door shuts behind her.

Fuck fuck _fuck_.

What the fuck is he doing?

He goes into his office, sits at his desk, and stares at the surface of it numbly for about an hour, before pulling himself together and going upstairs. Lana is fast asleep when he slips into bed beside her.

~~~

In the morning he tells her that he has a lot of work to do, and she just smiles and says, “Same here,” then settles down on the couch in his office with her laptop. They’ve worked side by side, each immersed in their own world, many times before, which is probably why Lana didn’t get the hint, but Lex only makes it until one o’clock before he’s forced to admit that he will almost certainly have a nervous breakdown if he doesn’t get the hell away from her immediately.

“Something’s come up at the plant,” he tells her, staring at his computer screen with a concerned expression, then looking over at Lana gravely. “I have to go out for a while. Will you be okay here?”

Lana glances up at him, then turns her eyes back to the screen in front of her. “Yep,” she says, not in any way suspicious.

He doesn’t kiss her goodbye and she doesn’t seem to notice.

Lex climbs into his Ferrari and grips the steering wheel tightly, breathing deeply until he’s something approximating calm again. He pulls out of the garage, screeches down the driveway and out into the road.

He drives aimlessly for twenty minutes and he talks to himself.

“Come on, Lex. Pull yourself together. You have an incredible girlfriend who loves and trusts you. Go and be with her.”

Then he stares at his reflection in the rear view mirror pityingly. Great. Now he’s talking to himself. He pulls the car over to the side of the road and lets his forehead fall onto the top of the steering wheel.

He badly wants to see Clark, but it’s out of the question. If he goes to the farm they’ll… He can’t keep doing that to Lana.

Then again, this might be the only chance he gets and something tells him he’d regret it if he didn’t take it.

One more time. Just one more time. And then he’ll avoid Clark for as long as it takes him to get over this.

Decision made, he starts the engine again, pulls out into the street, and drives to Clark’s house.

~~~

Clark is in the loft, sitting on the couch wearing jeans but no t-shirt, his legs spread, his head thrown back, sweat glistening all over his chest and face, eyes closed, panting. He jerks his head forward when he hears that Lex is there, at the top of the stairs, and he leaps up, relief and desire written all over his face.

There’s no point talking about it this time, so Lex surges forward at the same time Clark does, into his arms, and they kiss like they want to crawl inside each other’s mouths. Clark tears Lex’s shirt off him, flings it aside and starts hungrily licking and sucking and kissing his chest and neck.

They break apart momentarily to strip, then they’re back in each others arms, naked together finally, Clark whispering urgently into his ear, “I was waiting for you. I knew you’d come. Thank God you came.”

“God had nothing to do with it,” Lex gasps back as Clark lifts him up and carries him to the couch, Lex’s legs wrapped around his waist.

Moments later, Lex is lying on his back on the couch, with Clark kneeling between his bent, spread legs. Clark rubs oil into his cock, then dribbles a generous amount of it all over Lex’s balls and down between his ass cheeks. Fingers slide there next, over his asshole again and again, then Clark pushes one inside.

“Oh fuck,” Clark breathes out. “Fuck.”

“Hell yes,” Lex laughs. “ _Yes_.”

Clark takes his finger out and sucks it into his mouth sloppily. He pulls it out with a noisy slurp and takes hold of his cock, then he angles his body so he can push himself into the space where his finger had been. He keeps gasping as he slides in deeper, as Lex stretches around him, and then Clark’s all the way inside and both of them are shuddering. It’s been so long since he’s had a dick inside him Lex had forgotten how much he enjoys it.

The sensations he’s feeling are overwhelming; it’s as if he’s never really experienced sex before. What sex should be like. Clark above him, inside him, their bodies joined together, tongues and lips and mouths and teeth, licking and kissing, sucking and biting. Lex digs his heels into Clark’s back, and groans loudly each time the head of Clark’s cock hits his prostate.

Clark shouts out his moans as he starts to come.

Another of those incredible endless alien orgasms that go on for so long Lex isn’t sure how Clark even survives them. Lex is jacking his own cock, fast and hard, and he starts to come too, so intense he can’t stop himself from sobbing.

Eventually it stops and Clark collapses onto Lex’s sticky torso, his cock still inside Lex, his mouth open and wet, planted on Lex’s neck. Clark is _heavy_.

“Clark, you’re crushing me,” Lex gasps.

“Oh! Sorry.” He pulls out, lifts himself off Lex and falls back, leaning against the opposite arm of the couch, looking dazed and too beautiful for words.

Lex picks himself up and starts looking for his clothes.

“What are you doing?” Clark asks with a frown.

“Getting dressed. Going home.”

Clark is staring at him, eyes full of hurt. “To Lana.”

“Yes. To my girlfriend, Clark. I shouldn’t have come over.” It’s not the nicest thing he’s ever said to Clark but he doesn’t feel like being nice.

“But you did come over.”

Lex nods. “I was wrong.”

“Fuck you,” Clark says, staring at his hands.

“What the hell do you want from me, Clark?” Lex retorts. “You want me to break up with her?”

Clark screws his face up and refuses to look over at Lex. He doesn’t say anything.

“In a couple of days you won’t want to be anywhere near me. You’re in heat, Clark. I could be anyone.”

That makes Clark look over with injured eyes. “That’s not true,” he mutters.

“Yes. It is. I’m the one with everything to lose here, Clark. Not you. I was _happy_ with Lana, dammit!”

“Go back to her then!” Clark shouts.

Lex picks up his tattered shirt off the floor and grimaces. “Can you lend me a shirt?”

“Why should I?”

“Lend me a fucking shirt, Clark. Jesus.”

Clark pulls a crumpled t-shirt out from between the cushions of the couch and chucks it at Lex, hitting him in the face. It smells like Clark.

He pulls it on and glares at Clark for a second, then he turns on his heel and walks out.

~~~

It’s a problem that Lex is wearing Clark’s t-shirt. Partly because the aroma of Clark’s sweat and sperm clinging to his body is making him pine, partly because he needs to get showered and changed without being spotted by Lana. Which shouldn’t be too difficult, but there’s always the possibility that he’ll run into her on his way to the bedroom, or coming out of the shower, and what will he say?

If she catches him in the t-shirt he’s screwed. There is no good reason on earth why Lex would be wearing this t-shirt, and for once he cannot think of a single plausible lie that could explain it. He imagines the look on her face, the furrowed brow, the questions. He imagines himself stumped and unable to offer her an explanation. He imagines himself concocting a story on the spot that sounds so ridiculous he may as well just break up with her right then and there because it’s over already. It’s over if she sees him in the t-shirt.

Why the hell doesn’t he keep a spare shirt in the car? Why wasn’t he angrier at Clark for destroying a shirt more expensive than the entire contents of Clark’s wardrobe?

His heart is pounding by the time he parks and climbs out of the car. He sneaks inside via a private entrance in the garage that only he knows about and he slips into the first bathroom he reaches and locks the door behind him. It’s fully stocked with expensive soaps and large clean towels, and Lex makes a mental note to give every member of his housekeeping staff a raise tomorrow.

He also decides he’s going to start hiding clean shirts around the house and in all his cars, because he’s not quite out of the woods yet. He still needs to make it to the bedroom, find a duplicate of the shirt he was wearing and then go face Lana.

Would getting caught be worse than spending the evening with her? Having to pretend that he hasn’t betrayed her? Three times already? Would it be worse than having to have sex with her again tonight?

He stares at his reflection in the mirror in his bedroom, dressed and looking the same as he had a few hours ago. He made it.

“You’re back!” Lana says in surprise, entering the bedroom.

Lex nearly has a heart attack.

“What are you doing in here?” She’s frowning in confusion.

“I thought I’d lost my watch,” he replies. “But I didn’t. Here it is.” Lex picks it up off the bedside table and puts it on without making eye contact.

God, he has never been so pathetic in his life. When did he forget how to lie convincingly?

“Oh. Okay,” she says. “Lex…”

He looks up at her. “Yeah?” He wants to blink but is afraid it’ll make him look guilty.

“Is everything alright? You’ve been acting…” she shakes her head and laughs. “I don’t know. Different or something.”

“Everything’s fine. Come here,” he holds out his arms and she accepts the invitation, laying her head on his chest.

“Mmmm. You always smell so good,” she murmurs.

Shit. He can’t do this.

A quick kiss on her forehead then he’s extracting himself. “Let’s go out,” he suggests, sounding a little too enthusiastic. “Anywhere you want.”

“Ooh!” Lana likes the idea. “Let’s go to that Japanese place you took me to right before we started dating.”

Romantic.

“It’ll be romantic,” she says, smiling at him and leaning up for a kiss.

Lex kisses her on the mouth for the first time since… But he pulls away before she can deepen the kiss.

“Good idea,” he says, walking back into the wardrobe and selecting a jacket to wear. “Let’s go.”

He can’t see her face as he walks out the bedroom door with Lana on his heels, but he knows she looks bewildered. His behavior is nothing short of insane at the moment, and the only comforting thing about any of this is that Lana would never guess in a million years what he did.

What he wants to keep doing.

~~~

Lana takes a bath after they get back from the restaurant and Lex takes the opportunity to sneak down to the lab.

This is what it’s about after all: his work here. And the closer he can get to Clark the more he can learn about him.

He keeps most of his kryptonite in a safe, because he’s seen the effects of extended kryptonite exposure all too often. Hell, he’s experienced the effects of extended and concentrated exposure first hand, so he’s careful, because each task he sets himself is time-consuming.

Each task that ends with Lex holding another weapon in his hand. A weapon specifically designed to kill a being whose only vulnerability is an allergy to kryptonite. A weapon that Lex has no intention of ever using, but which he is compelled beyond all reason to possess anyway.

Eight months of hard labor in the lab, four days a week, and Lex has amassed quite an impressive pile of guns and grenades and bombs and devices and deadly poisons.

That he won’t ever use.

His mind empties as he polishes his AK47, but for one thought: how does he avoid having sex with Lana tonight?

~~~

Clark calls him at eleven the next morning, just as he and Lana are about to head into town for some brunch. Lana stops walking and stands at the front door, watching him stare at the name on the screen of his phone.

Lex had got out of having sex last night by feigning a headache, of all things. She’d been very concerned and had laid a cold, damp, folded up facecloth on his already cool forehead to soothe his not remotely sore head. He pretended to fall asleep as she stroked his chest tenderly. Eventually she kissed him on the cheek, took the facecloth away and settled down next to him.

“I have to take this,” he tells her in his ‘emergency at work’ voice. “Go and wait in the car; I’ll be out in a minute.” He snaps the phone open, holds it up to his ear and starts walking back to his office, amazed that he had sounded so calm, so ordinary.

“Hello.” He doesn’t look back until he hears the door shut behind Lana, and now he’s alone and she’s gone and he has Clark on the line.

“Are you coming over?” Clark sounds distressed.

“I can’t,” Lex says apologetically. He is actually sorry, which is a worrying new development. Apparently he now feels like he owes something to Clark.

“What!”

“Clark, calm down. I don’t know if I can make it today.” It’s like talking to an infant.

“ _Lex_.” Panicked breathing. “I need you. Please. I need you right now. I’m so… I’m so turned on. I- I need you. Now, I need you _now_.”

Lex is ridiculously charmed by Clark’s melodramatic response to Lex’s possible absence today. “How turned on are you?”

“Oh God, I’m so hard. My dick’s so hard Lex. I want you to see it.”

An intense rush of arousal courses through Lex’s body. “I’ll try,” he says, already knowing that he’ll be there within twenty minutes.

“Please hurry,” Clark whimpers, adorably pathetic.

Apparently their fight yesterday has been totally forgotten by both of them.

“Are you alone in the house?”

“Yes.”

“Is your mother due home at any point this afternoon?”

“No.”

“Go and get into bed and wait for me. No clothes, and no touching yourself. Okay?”

“Oh God.”

“Say okay.”

“Okay.”

Lex hangs up and walks out to the car and hops in. He smiles regretfully at Lana and smoothly explains that he needs to go into work again. He lies to her face easily this time—there’s an emergency that requires his immediate attention—and he’s contrite and flirtatious and she’s annoyed but understanding.

He drops her off at the Talon and speeds away in the direction of the plant.

Clark’s waiting for him in his bedroom, naked on the bed, rock hard, not touching himself, just like Lex asked him to be.

“Hi,” Lex says, pulling his long sleeved t-shirt off and chucking it over the back of the chair in front of Clark’s desk. He takes his pants off next and Clark is practically drooling as he watches, vibrating, ready to jump right out of his skin, trying his hardest not to move, to only do what Lex wants him to do.

Then Lex gives himself to Clark. Each time they do this might be the last time and Lex wants it to be memorable for both of them.

“How long are you staying?” Clark asks him between kisses. “Are you going to leave again straight afterwards?”

“I can stay a few hours,” Lex says, licking Clark’s cheek and impaling himself on Clark’s erection. Clark smiles.

He does stay this time. They spend the entire afternoon in bed. He showers there and leaves at six, a dopily happy Clark sighing and kissing him and telling him he can’t wait until tomorrow.

But Lex won’t be back tomorrow. This has to stop.

~~~

Lana isn’t happy that evening and she confronts him over their Chinese takeout, which they’ve been eating in silence on the floor of the den, in front of the fireplace.

“What’s going on, Lex? I’ve hardly seen you since I got here and you’ve been acting weird. And don’t lie to me.”

Lex lies well under pressure.

He blames his behavior on the current crisis at work which is keeping him far busier than he’d like to be. He mentions his headache again, but this time she reacts with suspicion.

“Since when do you get headaches? I thought your super healing… thing… stopped you getting sick.”

Lex nods, quickly deciding on a new tack. “It does.” He sighs. “I’ve been spending a lot of time in my lab recently. I think the headaches might have something to do with the work I’ve been doing down there.”

“What lab? What work?” She’s pissed off because she thinks she knows everything about Lex, but right now Lex doesn’t care about shattering that illusion if it will distract her from the real issue.

“It’s just a personal project. Nothing earth-shattering or interesting to anybody but me.”

“Are you working with the meteor rocks?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“What are you doing?”

Lex gives her a sheepish look. “Nothing much. Yet. I’ve been experimenting a lot, but the fruits of my labor have so far tasted a little sour. That’s why I didn’t tell you.” He holds out his hands. “There was nothing to tell.”

“But it’s making you sick. Not only have you kept it a secret from me, you’ve obviously been in the lab a hell of a lot if it’s having this kind of effect on you. Show me what you’ve been doing.”

“No,” Lex snaps. “I don’t ask you to show me every little thing you work on. This is my personal project and that’s the way it’s going to stay.”

Lana looks like she’s been stung. “Right,” she says. “Am I even allowed to be worried about you?”

Lex softens his tone. “Lana. You’re making a big deal out of nothing. I’m fine, honestly.”

“Why didn’t you want to have sex with me last night then?”

“My headache. Remember?”

“So this work you’re doing… it’s giving you headaches and it’s lowering your sex drive. And I’m supposed to keep my mouth shut about it? Have you forgotten who I am, Lex?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m your girlfriend. And I’m supposed to be worried about you when you get sick. Especially because you never _get_ sick.”

“Lana, calm down. I’m taking a break from the lab at the moment. Probably for a while. So the headaches should go away and I’ll be back to myself in no time.” Once the lies start it’s impossible to stop them. “I’m sorry this weekend has been so hard on you. It’ll be different next week.”

Lana is visibly relaxing now. “Just promise me we can spend the day together tomorrow,” she says.

Shit.

“I promise,” he replies, swallowing.

Having a demanding, insecure girlfriend with trust issues has its downsides, especially when one decides to embark on an affair. He made it through three days in her company before her suspicions were aroused. Three days. Yes, okay, Lex has not handled the situation well at all, and she’s not wrong about the fact that he’s been acting strangely, but really, she overreacted. And that was only after one night of no sex. How will he get around not fucking her tonight? Or tomorrow night? And how the fuck is he supposed to get through tomorrow without seeing Clark? How will _Clark_ cope?

They sit together on the couch in front of the television after they’ve finished eating, Lana dozing, Lex becoming increasingly anxious.

He’ll have to think of a way to escape from her tomorrow, if only for an hour or two. In the meantime getting blind drunk is the most appealing option on the horizon, and he stands up slowly, images of over-full glasses of whiskey floating serenely through his mind.

~~~

Lana decides to drop the subject of the lab even though it’s eating her up inside. She desperately wants to find out what Lex has been working on; she’s certain it’s something dangerous. His evasiveness is infuriating but he clearly has no intention of explaining himself.

Where is this lab he referred to? Why did he have to tell her about it? He should know her well enough by now to know that she isn’t going to be able to just pretend it doesn’t exist.

After dinner, Lana suggests they watch television for a while, which Lex looks less than enthused about, so she attempts to make him more comfortable by pretending to fall asleep. Perhaps if he relaxes he’ll want to actually talk to her. Instead, he stands up, walks over to the bar and pours himself a glass of scotch.

“How about a game of pool?” he suggests, downing his drink in one go.

“Maybe you should slow down, Lex,” Lana says, annoyed at herself for being a nag but unable to hold back. “You don’t want your headaches to get worse, do you?”

“Trust me,” he says. “This helps.” He refills his glass and takes another hefty slug. Then suddenly he bursts out laughing, a slightly hysterical cackle that chills Lana to the bone.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” he gasps. “Nothing. I just need some air.” He snatches the whiskey bottle from the top of the bar and stalks out of the room without another word. Lana fights the urge to burst into frustrated tears and follows him instead.

She calls out his name a couple of times but he doesn’t turn around. Why is he acting like this?

“What are you doing? Why won’t you talk to me? Why are you _lying_ to me?” Her voice is breaking, every muscle in her body is straining with angry tension.

Lex doesn’t stop walking until he’s standing in the middle of the driveway, clutching the bottle. She stops right behind him.

“Talk to me, Lex!”

He spins around and grabs her by her shoulders. “Shut up!” he yells. “Just shut the fuck _up_!” He’s shaking her and the look in his eyes is terrifying.

“ _Let go of me_ ,” she bellows, struggling out of Lex’s grip. She shoves him away from her with every ounce of strength she has and he stumbles back, loses his balance and falls flat on his ass, one hand breaking his fall, the other holding on tight to the whiskey.

This isn’t happening. It can’t be happening. She feels angrier than she’s ever felt before.

“You’re sleeping alone tonight,” she says, turning on her heel and stalking away from him, into the house. She goes into her old bedroom and strips down to her underwear before climbing into bed and pulling the blankets up to her chin. It’s unlikely that she’ll get any sleep tonight.

What the hell is _in that lab_?

~~~

They meet in the kitchen the next morning and Lex silently prays that Lana’s still too angry with him to want to make up, because if they make up then he will have no choice but to spend the day with her. Which isn’t an option. All he can think about right now is Clark. What is Clark doing? What is he wearing? What is he thinking about? Visions of Clark’s face swim through his mind; Clark above him, his mouth open, jaw slack, eyelids drooping, rivulets of sweat sliding down perfect, sculptured cheekbones…

Lex pushes his seat in so the table conceals his erection and quietly sips his coffee, occasionally glancing over at Lana, who’s staring at him with unbridled hostility.

“Do you have anything you’d like to say to me, Lex?” she says eventually. “Or are you just going to sit there in silence?”

“My ass hurts,” Lex replies.

“What?”

“You pushed me over last night. I fell pretty hard.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You’re ridiculous.”

She stands up and glares at him for a long while. “I need to get away from you,” she says. “I’m going out.”

“Where are you going?”

“None of your business,” she snaps, marching out of the room, her long hair flicking from side to side as if it too is angry.

Lex sighs. He really has royally fucked this up. It’s only a matter of time before Lana finds out the truth and then what will he do?

He grabs the keys to his Aston Martin and makes his way down to the garage.

~~~

They’re in Clark’s bedroom again, which is a little risky because Clark isn’t sure when his mother is coming home, but right now it’s more important for them to be comfortable and what are the chances they’ll get caught anyway?

They’ve already had sex twice since Lex arrived, the duvet has escaped from the bed and is lying in a heap on the floor and now they’re cuddling and kissing and stroking each other tenderly, occasionally murmuring into skin about how good they both feel.

“Lana’s leaving tomorrow morning. Come over. You can spend the night with me.”

Clark nuzzles Lex’s neck and purrs happily. “Okay.”

“Clark…”

“Hmm?”

“Lana knows something’s up.”

Clark draws back and stares into Lex’s eyes. “She does?” He knows he should be more concerned about that because Lana finding out about he and Lex is nothing short of disastrous. But Lex’s skin feels so good under his hands that it occurs to him instead that maybe Lana knowing wouldn’t be such a terrible thing. Although that might just be his hormones talking.

“I think I’ve been acting a little… strangely because of this. And she’s not stupid.”

Clark sucks on Lex’s ear, delighted. “I’ve been making you act strange?”

Lex laughs and then groans as Clark slips a tongue into his ear. “You make me crazy,” he whispers.

Clark likes that a lot, and predictably he’s fully erect again, so he moves quickly between Lex’s legs and stares down into Lex’s eyes rapturously, as Lex smears lube onto Clark’s cock and guides it towards his ass. Clark massages the taut opening of Lex’s body with the slippery head of his cock, then pushes inside.

“I love you,” Clark grunts, completely sincere, and the look in Lex’s eyes tells Clark it’s not one sided. He pumps in slowly, joyfully, and knows now he’ll never be able to live without this.

“You’re beautiful,” Lex grunts, hips rolling under him.

“Where do you want me to come?” Clark whispers into Lex’s mouth.

“All over me,” Lex replies, throwing his head back.

“Oh God, yeah. I’ll come all over you. I’ll cover you with my come.”

Lex gasps his approval and Clark keeps fucking inside until he feels his orgasm start to creep through.

“Oh _fuck_ ,” he shouts, as it starts.

The first jet fills up Lex’s ass, but then Clark quickly pulls out and ecstatically watches himself splash come onto Lex’s ass and balls and cock. His stomach and chest. He runs his hands through the fluid and wipes it onto Lex’s cheek, before penetrating Lex again as his climax continues.

He’s being loud, too loud, but he can’t stop it. Intense spikes of pleasure rip through ever inch of his body as he pulls out again, come still spurting out of his cock, never ending, but then a sound makes him turn his head towards the door, just as his mother pushes it open and bursts into the room with a concerned expression on her face.

She halts when she sees what’s going on, clutching her chest; it looks like she might have a heart attack, but there’s nothing Clark can do to stop his orgasm and he’s powerless to do anything other than watch her expression change from horror to embarrassment. He barely makes out the apology she gasps out before hurriedly turning and leaving them alone again.

Lex is motionless beneath him now and squinting over at where Clark’s mother had been standing.

Clark pants through his recovery before whispering, “Did that just happen?”

He gets a look of wide eyed, faintly amused horror in response. “That just happened,” Lex replies as if he doesn’t quite believe it himself.

“I can’t believe my mother—” Clark’s voice is awfully high pitched. “Oh my God. This isn’t happening. What am I going to do?”

“I think I’d better leave and you’d better go and talk to her.”

“I can never talk to my mother again, Lex,” Clark says.

“Yes, I know the feeling.” Lex rubs his nose with the back of his hand with a frown. “Come on. Let’s go and get cleaned up and then I’ll start making plans to leave the country.”

Clark smiles a little. “It’s my mom, Lex. Not my dad. She won’t try to kill you.”

Lex raises one eyebrow at Clark. “You sure about that?”

Clark winces. “No?”

“Oh God.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you sneak out of here once we’ve showered.”

“We should probably shower separately don’t you think?”

“Why? She already knows. And if we shower separately how am I supposed to give you a blowjob?”

Lex laughs. “I love it when you talk dirty, Clark.”

Clark dashes them into the bathroom and locks the door behind them. He’ll deal with his mother later.

~~~

Once Lex has accelerated away from the farm, raising a cloud of dust against the sunset, Clark takes his time walking slowly back to the house.

This is far and away the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to him. His _mother_. How had he not heard her coming up the stairs?

She’s waiting for him in the living room, just sitting there on the couch staring into space. He walks in and sits in the adjacent armchair, too scared to breathe.

“I was wondering why Lex’s car was in the driveway,” she says quietly. “I heard you- I thought you were in trouble.” She lets out a short humorless laugh.

“Mom, I’m sorry,” he blurts out. “I’m so sorry you saw that. Oh my God.” Clark hangs his head.

“Clark.” A few deep breaths. “What are you doing?”

“Mom, it’s- It’s not what you think.”

“What do I think, Clark?”

“I… I’m going through this… thing. We didn’t plan for this to happen… it just. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

His mother has a look of grim disbelief on her face. “What thing?”

“I get these… urges sometimes. It’s hard to control them.”

“What are you talking about, Clark? I don’t understand.”

Clark sighs in frustration. He really doesn’t want to have to spell this out. “It’s like I’m in heat or something,” he mutters.

“In heat,” she repeats. “But you’re male.”

“I know that Mom!” Another sigh. “It doesn’t happen often but when it does… it’s really hard.” Clark cringes at his unfortunate pun. “And Lex walked in on me last week when I was…”

“Okay, okay,” Martha interrupts. “I don’t need to hear the details.”

Clark slumps back into his chair in relief.

“Clark.”

He really hates it when she says his name like that. “Mom,” he replies.

“ _Clark_.” She shuts her eyes for a long moment. “Is it serious?”

“I don’t know,” he says.

“Are you back to normal yet?”

“No.”

“So it’s probably just because of… your hormones. And it’ll… end. Soon.”

“I don’t want it to end.”

“But what about Lana?”

They stare at each other. “I know. But I-”

“-don’t say it, Clark. You have to end it. You know that’s the right thing to do.”

Clark swallows and nods.

He has no intention of ending it. His skin already misses Lex’s skin, his mouth, his cock, his everything.

“I think I’ll go to bed now, Mom.” He stands up and walks out of the room, ignoring her calling out his name, and when he reaches his bedroom he shuts the door behind him and strips quickly.

He would give anything in the world right now for the hand on his dick to be Lex’s and not his own.

Clark masturbates and fantasizes about Lex for hours until he finally falls asleep.

~~~

Lex goes to bed alone again that night, peaceful yet full of anticipation. Tomorrow Lana will be gone and Clark will come over and spend the whole afternoon and evening and night with him. And then he will destroy everything in his lab.

He jerks off, thinking about Clark, then falls asleep smiling.

~~~

“Well this weekend has pretty much sucked,” Lana says over coffee the next morning. “Are we going to talk about it?”

Lex grits his teeth and steels himself for another scene. Then he stands up and walks around the breakfast counter until he’s standing in front of her. He picks up her hands and squeezes them gently.

“I’m so sorry, Lana,” he says in a low, sincere voice. “I’ve been a very bad boyfriend this weekend and you have every right to be angry with me.” He leans in and kisses her tenderly on the mouth. She winds her arms around his neck and looks up at him unhappily.

“I’m worried about you,” she says, and her voice is full of hurt, her eyes are full of fear, everything about her screams vulnerable.

“You don’t need to be,” he tells her, brushing her hair behind her ear. “Try to enjoy your week.” Another kiss on the mouth. “We’ll talk properly on Thursday.”

Once she’s gone he starts to feel excited about the next four days. Clark is due over here at midday and he already knows he won’t be able to get anything done before that. Or after that, he thinks, grinning to himself.

God, _Clark_. The most unique, perfect being on the planet - in the _universe_ \- and he can’t get enough of Lex. He loves Lex. Lex replays yesterday’s session with Clark over and over in his mind. _I love you_ , he’d said. Clark loves him.

Lex has never felt like this before. He didn’t even know it was possible to be this happy.

He kills time in a blissful daze and at twelve o’clock he sits behind his desk to wait, his laptop open but not on.

By one, Lex is annoyed. Being kept waiting is about Lex’s least favorite thing in the entire world, especially when he’s been looking forward to something so much. He paces around his office with his phone held tightly in his hand.

By two, Lex is worried. Clark isn’t answering his home phone or his cell phone and yes, it’s a little crazy that Lex has left four messages on it in the past hour, but it doesn’t make any sense that Clark isn’t here.

By five, Lex is enraged. He’s been stood up without an explanation. He can’t leave the house in case Clark turns up and he can’t do anything because he’s too upset.

At six, Lex numbly walks into the den, picks up a bottle of scotch and collapses back onto the couch.

How could this be over already? And now what? They go back to hating each other? Clark goes back to looking at him like he’s the scum of the earth?

It can’t be over, it can’t. Lex needs this, he needs Clark, he needs Clark _so much_.

The frustration inside him is dangerously close to turning him violent. He’s been resisting the urge to throw his bottle of scotch into the fireplace and the only thing stopping him is the knowledge that it’s such a clichéd thing to do. The other thought in his mind that’s not going away is of the lab.

Clark walks into the room at seven. Hesitant, serious, nervous. Lex is slouching low on the couch with the half empty whiskey bottle dangling from his fingers and a hole in his heart the size of Calcutta. He’s not as drunk as he wants to be because moving even his arm took energy he didn’t have. He looks up at Clark and waits.

Nothing. Not even an apology for his tardiness. He just stands there looking uncomfortable.

“So that’s that then,” Lex says. “You got what you wanted and now you’re… done with me.”

“Lex.”

“Do you even feel anything?” Lex asks. “At all? Or was it all just… hormonal?”

“Of course I feel something. Lex. I’m sorry.”

“Save it,” he replies. “Save it for someone whose life you haven’t completely fucked up.”

“I want to… but I- we _can’t_. We can’t do this to Lana. It’s wrong.”

Lex furrows his brow at Clark’s choice of words. Clark wants to… “You didn’t care much about right and wrong yesterday. Or the day before. Or the day before that.” Lex drops the bottle on the floor, stands up, and has to hold out his arms to steady himself, swaying a little as he does it. “Tell me something.” He walks over to Clark and stands in front of him, and God, he can _smell_ Clark now, and being this close to him might be a bad idea. “Do you have any sexual feelings left or do they just vanish the moment your week of… needing to… _mate_ … is over with?”

Clark couldn’t look more unhappy. “I have them but I can control them now.”

“So you still want me?”

Lex watches Clark swallow nervously.

“Yes, but I can’t. I would never do that to Lana.”

“You’ve already done it, Clark.”

“We have to stop.”

Lex nods. “Yes, you made that clear when you kept me waiting for seven hours today without so much as a phone call.”

“I’m sorry. I needed time to think.”

“That’s a whole lot of thinking you must have done.”

“Lex, this is… this is a bad situation.”

“No kidding! The first good relationship I’ve ever had is ruined because I’m obsessed with an alien who can only stand to be around me when he’s in heat.”

Clark looks mortified. “I want to be around you,” he says in a quiet voice. “So much.”

Lex sucks in a breath, suddenly light headed with want. “You can be,” he whispers then hates himself for it.

Clark doesn’t say anything, he just stares at Lex with a pained expression.

“One more night,” Lex blurts out, surging forward and wrapping his hand around the side of Clark’s neck, pressing his lips to Clark’s warm cheek. “Just give me one more night.” He digs his fingers into Clark’s skin and drags his lips over the soft skin of Clark’s face. Clark doesn’t move away. “I want to be with you when you’re normal. I want to be _inside_ you. I haven’t fucked you yet. I _need_ to fuck you.”

Clark’s arms are around him now and Lex can hear him breathing. “We _can’t_.”

But Lex isn’t ready to give up. He finds Clark’s mouth with his own and opens it up with his tongue, plunging inside mercilessly. Before, Clark found Lex’s desire for him incredibly arousing. Maybe that hasn’t changed… Maybe Clark will keep kissing him back and they’ll go upstairs.

He groans and pushes his body forward, cock making contact with Clark’s thigh, already hard, still needy, forever at Clark’s mercy. “Let’s go upstairs,” he whispers into Clark’s ear, a second before sucking the lobe into his mouth.

“God, Lex. I want to. I really do.”

Don’t let Clark argue, don’t let him think about it. Another deep kiss on the mouth and again Clark responds passionately.

“I want to suck you. Remember how good it feels when you push your cock into my mouth.”

That earns him a low groan and now Lex can feel Clark’s erection against his lower belly.

“I’m going to take all your clothes off, Clark. Lick you all over. Rub my cock all over you. God, you make me so hard.”

They’re both gyrating their hips now in a stand up dance, and Clark’s sucking on Lex’s neck and there’s no _way_ they’re stopping now.

“I have to go, Lex,” Clark moans, thrusting forward. “We can’t do this.”

“Just one more night. One more night won’t change anything.” He starts to scrabble at Clark’s fly, got to get him naked, got to get him past the point where he can even think about leaving. There are hands squeezing his ass and Lex knows Clark’s remembering what it feels like to put his cock there.

“One more night,” he says again, biting into invulnerable flesh.

He’s being pushed away and held away and then Clark’s trying to _get_ away, and this isn’t happening. Lex follows and grabs at Clark’s arms and then in an instant Clark’s at the door, yards away from him, out of reach, and he’s blinking at Lex and looking close to tears.

“I can’t, Lex. I can’t do that to Lana.”

He’s opening the door, he’s leaving, he’s leaving, he’s leaving—

“I’ll break up with her!” Lex shouts and it makes Clark stop. And stare. “Please don’t go,” he chokes out.

Clark squeezes his eyes shut as if he’s trying to block out all of the pain he’s caused, he’s causing, but it doesn’t seem to work because his eyes are still full of agony when he opens them again.

“I’m so sorry,” he says, voice desolate. Then he’s gone.

Lex stays glued to the spot, stunned, shaking, staring at the door in horrified disbelief. Clark will come back, he has to come back.

Lex waits. He waits and waits, until his legs hurt.

Lex goes to bed feeling numb.

~~~

Tuesday is endless and unbearable and Lex spends it alternating between devising strategies to win Clark over and hating himself for bothering. He could blackmail Clark, he could threaten to tell the world all of Clark’s secrets and Clark wouldn’t know that he was lying, Clark wouldn’t call his bluff. _Dammit_. He hates that he cares this much, hates that he’s consumed with it. Hates Clark. Hates him for doing this to Lex, for being so goddamn pious, for being _better_ than Lex is.

Why is it okay for Lex to cheat on Lana but Clark can’t bear to? Clark and Lana aren’t even friends. Why the fuck should he care?

Fencing with Heike makes him feel better for a short while, but when she leaves and he’s back in his civvies, sitting in the den, the ache is back.

The phone rings.

Lex grabs it off the table so quickly he fumbles and it takes a while before he can focus his eyes to see who’s calling him.

Lana.

He throws the phone into the fireplace and watches it shatter.

The only thing stopping him going down to the lab is the possibility that Clark might yet change his mind and come over, although the temptation is becoming almost overwhelming.

At eleven o’clock that night Lex takes a twenty minute shower and as the scorching water numbs his skin he concentrates hard on not breaking down completely. He dries himself and rubs expensive moisturizing cream into his skin, watching himself in the mirror as he does it. All over his body, his cock and balls and ass, and he yearns for Clark’s hands on him.

He considers masturbating but it feels too… pathetic, given the current state of affairs.

Instead he wanders out into the bedroom, naked and exhausted, both dreading and craving sleep.

Clark is standing in the doorway.

Lex swallows hard and his chest fills up with nervous anticipation. “Clark.”

Neither of them move at all and Clark doesn’t say anything for a long time, he just gazes at Lex, distraught and conflicted. But he’s here, he’s _here_ , and that means it’s not over.

It’s not over.

“One more night,” Clark says, barely audible.

“Yes.”

“You won’t tell her.”

“No. Never.”

Clark takes a few tentative steps into the room and Lex strides over to him quickly, pushing the bedroom door shut, and moving in front of Clark’s hunched frame.

“You look…” Clark’s eyes travel down Lex’s torso and stop when they reach his groin. He starts breathing hard, almost to the point of sobbing, and then Lex is in his arms, and they devour each other.

Soon they’re on the bed, naked together, kissing deep and long and messy and wet. Clark’s back is arched, his penis erect, and thank God he still feels arousal, still wants Lex like this.

It’s different this time. Clark is less ecstatic, more focused. Less joyous, more intense. When he touches Lex it’s as if it’s for the first time, but it’s not wonder he’s feeling… it’s more than that. It’s hurting him that he needs this so much, and Lex understands that more than he’s ever understood anything.

When he sucks Clark’s cock into his mouth he listens carefully to Clark’s helpless whimpering above him and he knows he can never let go of this. He’ll do anything to keep it. _Anything_.

He moves his head up and down, sucking as hard as he can until hot liquid fills his mouth to the brim, and Clark is a wreck of shuddering bliss, flat on his back with his knees bent and his legs spread wide, not going anywhere.

Lex doesn’t swallow, but instead dribbles the semen from his mouth into his hand, sits up on his knees and covers his throbbing cock with it.

“Turn over, Clark,” he gasps. “I need to do this right now.”

Clark stares at him with his mouth open and his breathing harsh, then obliges.

No preparation, because Lex can’t wait, and Clark doesn’t need it. He positions himself between Clark’s thighs, pulls one of Clark’s ass cheeks aside, gazes at the dark crinkled hole then massages it with the head of his cock. Then he pushes himself inside. He sinks in slowly and it’s not easy; so tight, but eventually he’s fully encased, his cock as far up Clark’s ass as it can go.

And Clark just moans with pleasure.

Lex starts to pump his hips.

~~~

Lex is inside him. Big hard cock inside him. In and out with long slow thrusts, Clark’s name on wet, chafed lips.

Clark never could have imagined how good it would feel. So good that he knows it was the right thing to do to come back. Stressing over this has consumed him since yesterday morning, when he woke up feeling normal again.

At first he was worried about how Lex would react to him ending things, but it didn’t take long for him to start worrying about whether he’d even be able to end things, and God, saying goodbye to Lex yesterday had been traumatic.

A week ago, he’d felt nothing but anger towards the man on top of him now.

A lot can change in a week.

“Harder,” he grunts, and Lex shoves in with even more force.

“I’ll fuck you so hard,” Lex whispers. “I’m gonna fuck you _so hard_.”

“ _Yes_.”

Clark moves his ass in perfect time with Lex, meeting him for each brutal thrust, making sure Lex’s cock goes in deep each time, as deep as possible, and Lex is getting closer and closer to the edge. His groans are hard edged and pained, his thrusting fast and ragged and vicious.

“I’m gonna come in your ass,” he rasps. “Gonna come-“

Suddenly still, deep inside. Out, then in. Lex holds himself in.

Out, then in.

Again.

A wet forehead on Clark’s back and then Clark feels Lex pull himself out and collapse on top of him.

They remain motionless for many minutes.

Until Clark can’t wait a second longer to see Lex’s face. He rolls over and draws Lex into his arms, staring into his eyes, which are dark and full of amazement and fear.

So exposed, so honest. It’s been years since he felt anything approaching this kind of connection with Lex. It’s hard to remember why he hates him, why he doesn’t trust him, why they are wrong for each other in every way.

But he also knows that even though this feels like love, it might not be.

It might be just sex; sex that’s so good he can’t stop wanting it, and that gets mistaken for love by a lot of people. Every celebrity in Hollywood. They get married too quickly because they’ve found some other beautiful person to have lots of amazing sex with and then they discover that they barely even like each other.

That’s not real love. Real love lasts. Real love is what his parents had, what hardly anyone else he knows has. It’s what he wants. And this…

Lex tastes so right to him, feels so good under him, looks so beautiful. When they kiss Clark thinks he might never get tired of this. This…

“Stay the night,” Lex murmurs into his ear.

Clark has no intention of leaving again.

~~~

Lana walks in to Lex’s house on Thursday evening with her overnight bag slung over her shoulder and a smile on her face. It disappears when she sees Lex, and Lex wonders what he must look like.

“What?” she asks.

“Lana,” he says. “I have to… we have to talk.”

She knows what’s coming; Lex can see that in the way her cheeks and mouth slacken, and the way her eyes go dead. She doesn’t want to hear this.

“Why?”

She’s not asking Lex why they need to talk, she’s asking him why he’s breaking up with her. He can’t tell her the truth and he doesn’t want to, even though lying to her is difficult. They were always honest with each other in a way Lex has never had with anyone else, least of all Clark.

“I don’t love you anymore,” he says, because it’s the quickest way to end this, not because it’s true.

Her lip trembles and she stares at Lex, eyes stormy with hurt and anger.

“And when did that happen?” she asks in a low voice.

“I’m so sorry, Lana. I care about you, more than I can say. But this relationship… it doesn’t have a future.” He moves forward, needing to touch her, but before he can grab hold of her arms, she shoves him away from her and stumbles back.

“Don’t touch me,” she spits. She looks like she might cry.

“Lana.” This hurts more than he expected it to. “Please don’t cry.”

“I hate you,” she says, sucking in a shuddering breath. “I hate you.”

She spins around and runs out of the room, leaving Lex alone. He blinks slowly and it takes him a few moments to realize that every muscle in his body is rigid with tension.

What has he done?

~~~

Clark sees Lex every day. They spend most of their time in bed, sleeping and fucking and occasionally talking about trivial things.

Lex broke up with Lana last Thursday and it’s exactly a week later. Clark spent five out of seven nights in the mansion and the other two he stayed at home and Lex snuck in after midnight so they could sleep together. They even managed to have extremely quiet sex both times, before falling into a deep sleep, wrapped around each other, together until dawn, when Lex was forced to sneak out of the house unseen by Clark’s mother.

Who confronted Clark for the second time last Thursday.

He’d been nervously killing time in the barn, clearing it up and doing more chores in the space of a few hours than he’d done in the entire preceding week.

“What’s going on, Clark?” Martha had asked him, although not in a concerned way, more in an impatient way.

“Nothing!”

“Is it Lex?”

“What?”

“Is he the reason you haven’t spent a night at home since Monday?”

Clark didn’t confess straight away, but when his mother brought Lana up again, he got defensive. “He’s breaking up with her right now,” he blurted out. And she’d gone quiet.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” she said, her worried eyes fixed on Clark’s chest, as if looking at his face was too difficult for her.

She turned and walked out and they haven’t spoken much since. It’s not that Clark’s avoiding her; it’s that he can’t stay away from Lex.

He eats dinner with her tonight and they have a nice time chatting about everything except Lex, but he still can’t wait to leave. To go to the mansion. Where Lex is waiting for him.

“Gotta go,” he says, kissing her on the cheek. She pulls away a little, looking unhappy, but she doesn’t say anything.

Clark sprints to the mansion in record time and finds Lex in the den, sitting by the fire drinking brandy. He watches as Clark advances on him. Clark strips off his jacket and drops it to the floor as Lex stands up and moves forward.

The moments just before they touch are always thrilling for Clark. The look of desire and love in Lex’s eyes and the way his lips are parted, ready for Clark’s mouth and tongue, make it impossible for Clark to breathe quietly. Lex walks into Clark’s embrace with an appreciative groan, and they suck on each other’s mouths passionately for about a minute.

“Let’s go to bed,” Clark suggests, picking Lex up and cradling him in his arms, loving the feel of Lex’s legs wrapped tightly around his waist.

Lex’s eyes flare up in agreement, and Clark dashes them up to the bedroom, not bothering to shut the door behind him and stopping next to the bed. He kisses Lex on the mouth and sets him down on the floor.

They stand in front of each other with dopey smiles on their faces.

Lex unbuttons Clark’s jeans and pulls down the zipper. Clark pushes his jeans down over his hips and enjoys Lex’s amused laugh at his lack of underwear.

“Nice,” Lex says, with a quirk of his eyebrow. He takes Clark’s cock in his hand and starts to stroke.

“That feels good,” Clark breathes out, staring down at the head of his cock as it peaks out the top of Lex’s moving fist again and again. He starts moving his hips.

“You like the way my hand feels?” Lex asks, moving it quicker.

“Yeah."

They look at each other.

“I like the way your mouth feels too,” he says.

Lex smiles and leans in, pressing his cheek against Clark’s. “Oh do you now?” He squeezes Clark’s cock tightly. “You want my mouth?”

“God yeah.”

Lex moans and drops to his knees.

They spend the next two hours having all kinds of sex. Clark could keep going but Lex is exhausted, flat on his back with his eyes closed and a smile on his face, so Clark settles down on his side and watches as Lex falls asleep. He idly fingers Lex’s face and head and chest and occasionally presses his lips to random spots of soft white skin.

He’ll be happy watching Lex sleep for hours.

~~~

It’s a different kind of Thursday from normal.

Normally Lana would arrive at Lex’s place and they’d have dinner together and they’d get an early night and they’d make love. Normally Lana would be happy and excited to be in Smallville, as opposed to bitter and furious. She doesn’t even know why she had to come back today, but she did.

It’s all under the guise of getting her things from the mansion, cutting off all ties quickly, so she has no reason to ever see him again. But she knows that’s bullshit. She wants to see him.

Not because she wants him back, no. Because she _doesn’t understand_. All week she’s been wracking her brain, trying to work out what happened, trying to pinpoint the moment when things changed, when Lex stopped being her boyfriend.

The weekend two weeks ago haunts her; she knows that’s the key. It was then. Lex wasn’t acting like himself and she found out about the lab, and there were problems at work, but… it still doesn’t add up. He’d avoided spending time with her and sleeping with her and he’d-- he’d gone out a lot without her.

Where had he gone?

Lana’s certain it wasn’t to the plant.

Someone else?

If that’s the case Lana wants to hear it from his own treacherous mouth because being confused isn’t sitting well with her.

Eight months of her life. And she’d loved him too. She still does.

She lets herself into the mansion with her key and wanders inside, steely determination in her walk, the familiarity of the place only hardening her resolve. She wants some answers and she’s not leaving here without them.

Where the hell is he? Not in his office or the den, which means he’s probably out, because they’re the only two rooms Lex is ever in when he’s at home, and it’s far too early for him to be in bed.

Dammit. Lana was ready for this confrontation and she’s well aware that another day she might not be quite so ready. She suddenly feels exhausted and emotional; it looks like this entire trip was wasted and that she’ll have no choice other than to jump in her Miata and drive back to Metropolis.

She holds back a sob and turns around, about to walk out of the den and out of the mansion and out of Smallville, resigned to that course of action, when she notices the red jacket.

Frowning, she walks over to it, bends over and picks it up.

It’s Clark’s. She’d know this jacket anywhere. What is Clark’s jacket doing on the floor? What’s it doing here at all? She shakes her head and carelessly hangs the jacket over the arm of the couch.

She looks around, suddenly nervous.

“Clark?”

Nothing.

She creeps out of the den and into the hall, fear welling up in her stomach, her heart beating loudly, her hands unsteady. If Clark’s here then something is probably wrong. He’s only ever here when there’s danger afoot, which means that Lex is probably in danger.

And God, if _that’s_ the reason he broke up with her; because he’s in danger and wants to protect her, then… well that changes everything.

She begins to search the mansion, quickly, checking each room as she passes it, heading up the staircase as quietly as she can and making her way towards their - Lex’s - bedroom. From down the hall she can see that the door is open and that there’s a faint light coming from the room. She sticks close to the walls and silently inches her way towards the door.

She peers inside. The darkness of the hallway provides cover for her, as she would otherwise be visible to the two people on the bed.

The two people on the bed who are … Lex and Clark.

Lex and Clark.

Naked save a sheet which is pulled up over their hips, and Lex is on his back, sleeping, lip curved up, the very picture of serenity. Clark is not asleep. He’s lying on his side, fingers touching points all over Lex’s torso. Occasionally he touches Lex’s head and face and neck, lightly dragging his thumb over Lex’s mouth and chin. There’s a look in his eyes that Lana’s never seen before.

He places a slow kiss to Lex’s shoulder, and she watches it linger, watches Clark’s tongue slip out to lick at the skin.

This cannot be happening.

She feels like an intruder, as if she’s seeing something she has no right to see, and yet… how is this _not_ her business?

Lex and _Clark_.

This is why Lex left her.

She gapes at them, wanting to throw up, wanting to walk away, to not care, to turn back time, to not even _know_ them. Tears spring into her eyes at the same time Lex slowly opens his and smiles up at Clark.

Clark smiles back then kisses him on the lips, and it’s so passionate Lana wishes she had a knife in her hand so she could cut herself just to stop this pain.

There are tears rolling down her cheeks when she steps into the room. She doesn’t bother to disguise the torment they’ve caused her.

They look over at the same time and Clark’s expression shifts instantly from bliss to horrified shame, as he quickly moves away from Lex so they’re no longer touching, ruffling up the sheet around his crotch, presumably to hide the fact that he’s aroused.

Lex looks similarly shattered, mouth hanging open, eyes full of remorse.

“Lana,” he whispers.

It’s hard to speak. “You cheated on me.” Her voice doesn’t sound like her voice. “You and Clark. You…” Incredulous…

“Lana, I’m-“

“-you look like you’re in love with each other. Are you in love with each other?”

They don’t answer her, which is answer enough.

“How could you do this to me?” She doesn’t know who her question is directed at.

“We didn’t plan this, Lana,” Lex says, a note of pleading in his voice. “It just happened.”

“Right.” Lana feels more angry than hurt now. “Tell me. How does something like this-” she gestures to the two of them, “-just happen?” She doesn’t wait for an answer before continuing. “You know, it’s funny. I came here thinking I wanted to know why you left me. How naïve, right?”

She hears Clark mutter, “I should go,” and watches him attempt to crawl out of the bed without revealing his nudity, eyes searching frantically around for something to put on.

“No,” she says. “I think you should stay. I think you should stay exactly where you are.” She gazes at Clark. “You know, Clark, I might have expected this from him. But for all your faults, I never pictured you as a mistress.”

“Lana,” Lex says, like a warning. “This isn’t Clark’s fault.”

“Ha!” Hysteria is building inside her. “So it’s all your fault, is it, Lex?” What do they take her for? “Clark is an innocent.”

“I’m not,” Clark says. “I knew it was wrong, I knew it. I knew it would hurt you if you found out but I did it anyway.”

“Right. Because you hadn’t quite hurt me enough, is that it, Clark?”

Lex jumps in again, as if defending Clark is the most important thing on his mind. “I was the driving force behind this, Lana. I’ve… I’ve loved Clark for years. He tried to end it but I wouldn’t let him.”

“Fuck you!” she shouts. “Fuck you _both_!” Angry tears spill out of her eyes and nothing has ever hurt this much before, _nothing_. “I hope he doesn’t lie to you, Lex. I hope he treats you better than he treated me.”

Neither respond. She wants to _crush_ them.

“And Clark…” there’s mad laughter in her shaky voice. “… make sure Lex doesn’t go down to his secret lab too often. It’s been giving him headaches.”

She doesn’t wait for a reaction, she just walks out, in somewhat of a daze.

They’ll never make it as a couple. Never in a million years.

She starts her car.

She drives to Metropolis.

She gets horrendously drunk and passes out on the floor of the living room that Lex owns.

~~~

  


~~~

“Well that was in no way fun,” Lex comments.

“No.”

“On the bright side, this means we don’t have to keep our relationship a secret.”

“Yeah.”

Lex looks at Clark and smiles a little. “You okay?” he asks, reaching for him. Clark nods and smiles back.

“I love you,” Lex says. “And Lana will be okay.”

“I know,” Clark replies, crawling into Lex’s arms. “Lex?”

Lex raises his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“What secret lab?”


End file.
